No
Knock-Out: The Battle Between Palestinians and the IDFSpirit
of Intifadah amazes Zionist oppressorsBy Uri
Avnery, iViews, 26
April 2001

Two boxers enter the ring.
One is a heavy-weight champion, his opponent is a feather-weight. Everyone
expects a knock-out at the beginning of the first round.

But, miraculously, the first round
ends – and there is no knock-out. The second round ends – no knock-out.
When the feather-weight is still standing up after the third and fourth
round, it is clear that he is the true winner. Not by a knock-out, not
even on points, but just because he is still standing and fighting against
such a formidable opponent.

This exemplifies the present confrontation
between the IDF and the Palestinian people. The mighty Israeli army has
not succeeded in breaking the backbone of the uprising. It has tried everything
– gunship helicopters, tanks, cannons, liquidations, destruction of whole
neighborhoods, closure, siege, demolition of homes, uprooting of plantations
– and, in the seventh month, the Palestinians continue to stand on their
feet and fight.

In this fight, the Sharon-Peres government
enjoys the overwhelming support of the United States, which provides it
with arms and money and exercises its veto in the Security Council on Israel's
behalf. (Indeed, a European diplomat has said that Israel is in practice
the fifth permanent member of the Security Council with the veto power.)
Europe does pay lip-service to the Palestinians, but that's all. The Arab
regimes, which receive generous American handouts, are also content with
merely donating kind words to the Palestinians. In Israel itself, all the
media are totally enlisted in the service of the government, there is no
real opposition in the Knesset, and – apart from the small radical peace-forces,
which are boycotted by the media – there is no protest.

If so, are the Palestinians helpless
against the vast superiority of the Sharon-Peres government? Not really.
They pin their hopes on several factors.

First: the intifada itself. To the
astonishment of the Israeli generals and commentators, the will of the
Palestinian population has not broken, in spite of the terrible blows it
is suffering. The economy has been demolished, life has become hell, but
the entire Palestinian public supports the struggle.

Somebody has described the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict as a "clash between an irresistible force and an immovable object".
The intifada has become a war of attrition. In such a war between occupier
and occupied, the morale of the occupied is stronger, because he is fighting
for his very existence. Napoleon said: "In war, moral considerations account
for three quarters, the balance of actual forces only for the other quarter."

Israel, too, pays an immense price
(nobody in Israel dares to calculate it), both in terms of money and the
great damage caused to the quality of the IDF. Nobody knows when fatigue
will overcome the will of the Israeli people to go on with this useless
struggle. It will probably happen before the Palestinian side raises
its hands in surrender.

Second: the Arab masses. True, the
Arab regimes are not ready to lift a finger for the Palestinians and they
cannot afford to provoke the Americans, who keep them going with their
money. But the situation of the intellectuals and the masses is quite different.
There the sympathy for the Palestinians is great.

This does not yet bother the kings
and presidents. But if something were to happen that would infuriate the
masses in a way that would endanger the stability of their governments,
the situation would suddenly change completely. In all the Arab countries
there are nationalist and Islamic opposition groups just waiting for such
an opportunity. If Israel commits – even by accident – an atrocity
like the 1996 Kafr Kana incident or an outrage in the Haram al-Sharif (Temple
Mount) area, an explosion would follow.

A few days ago I had a conversation
with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. I got the impression that he pins great
hopes on Arab support. He pointed out that a million people had taken part
in one demonstration in Morocco, that for the first time a demonstr,ation
had been held in Saudi Arabia (and a women's demonstration at that!), and
that even in distant Oman angry demonstrations had taken place. It seems
that everybody is waiting for Sharon to commit the act of brutality that
will blow the situation sky-high.

Third: there is a limit even to the
total American support for Sharon-Peres. From the Palestinian point of
view, the Bush administration may be the worst ever. But it has a definite
red line: the oil. If an explosion were to occur in the Arab world and
the kings and presidents were to send SOS messages to the White House,
an American iron fist would descend on Sharon and Company.

In the meantime, in the 29th week
of the fight, there is no knock-out.

Uri Avnery is a journalist, peace
activist, former member of the Knesset, and leader of Gush Shalom, the
most militant part of the Israeli peace movement.